Ponte Sisto is a bridge in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

's historic centre, spanning the river

Tiber The Tiber ( ; ; ) is the List of rivers of Italy, third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the R ...

. It connects Via dei Pettinari in the

Rione A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the title of (). Formed a ...

Regola Regola is the 7th of Rome, Italy, identified by the initials R. VII, and belongs to the Municipio I. The name comes from (the name is recognizable in the modern ''Via Arenula''), which was the name of the soft sand ( in Italian) that the river T ...

to Piazza Trilussa in

Trastevere Trastevere () is the 13th of Rome, Italy. It is identified by the initials R. XIII and it is located within Municipio I. Its name comes from Latin (). Its coat of arms depicts a golden head of a lion on a red background, the meaning of which i ...

History

The construction of the current bridge occurred between 1473 and 1479, and was commissioned by Pope

Sixtus IV Pope Sixtus IV (or Xystus IV, ; born Francesco della Rovere; (21 July 1414 – 12 August 1484) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 August 1471 until his death in 1484. His accomplishments as pope included ...

(r. 1471–84), after whom it is named, from the architect

Baccio Pontelli Baccio Pontelli (c. 1449 – c. 1494) was an Italian architect and worker in wood inlays, who designed the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. Baccio is an abbreviation of Bartolomeo. Pontelli was born in Florence; in 1459 his father declared he was ...

, who reused the foundations of a prior Roman bridge, the Pons Aurelius, which is also known as Pons Antoninus and had been destroyed during the early Middle Ages. Currently traffic on the bridge is restricted to pedestrians. (According to Mandell Creighton's History of the Papacy, the Sistine Bridge was built of blocks from the

Colosseum The Colosseum ( ; , ultimately from Ancient Greek word "kolossos" meaning a large statue or giant) is an Ellipse, elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphi ...

. Further, that Sixtus was mindful of the disaster which had occurred in the Jubilee of 1450 through the crowding of the Bridge of S. Angelo, which was the only available means of communication with S. Peter's.)

Roman Pons Aurelius

Trastevere - Fontanone dei cento preti a piazza Trilussa 1527

The predecessor bridge to Ponte Sisto, the Pons Aurelius, was first mentioned by authors in the 4th and 5th centuries and was later known in the Middle Ages as "Pons Antoninus," "Pons Antonini in Arenula," and "Pons Ianicularis id est pons ruptus vulgariter nominatus et Tremelus et Antoninus." The Pons Antoninus was partially destroyed in 772, at the time the Lombard king

Desiderius Desiderius, also known as Daufer or Dauferius (born – died ), was king of the Lombards in northern Italy, ruling from 756 to 774. The Frankish king of renown, Charlemagne, married Desiderius's daughter and subsequently conquered his realm. De ...

took Rome, and rebuilt in its current form by Pope Sixtus IV, whose name it carries to this day.

Renaissance Ponte Sisto

The bridge is architecturally characteristic because of the "oculus" or eye lightening the masonry of its central

spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame, between the tops of two adjacent arches, or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fil ...

: this was erected to diminish the river's pressure on the bridge in case of flood. On the left bridge head are placed the copies of two marble slabs (removed in the 1990s after continued vandalism) bearing an elegant Latin inscription composed by Renaissance humanist

Bartolomeo Platina Bartolomeo Sacchi (; 1421 – 21 September 1481), known as il Platina () after his birthplace of Piadena, was an Italian Renaissance humanist writer and gastronomist, author of what is considered the first printed cookbook. Platina star ...

in honour of Sixtus IV in occasion of the construction of the bridge. They recite: :XYSTVS IIII PONT MAX :AD VTILITATEM P RO PEREGRINAEQVE MVLTI :TVDINIS AD JVBILAEVM VENTVRAE PONTEM :HVNC QVEM MERITO RVPTVM VOCABANT A FVN :DAMENTIS MAGNA CVRA ET IMPENSA RESTI :TVIT XYSTVMQVE SVO DE NOMINE APPELLARI VOLVIT Roma Ponte Sisto uno

and :MCCCCLXXV :QVI TRANSIS XYST QVARTI BENEFICIO :DEVM ROGA VT PONTEFICEM OPTIMVM MAXI :MVM DIV NOBIS SALVET AC SOSPITET BENE :VALE QVISQVIS ES VBI HAEC PRECATVS :FVERIS On the corner of via dei Pettinari and via Giulia once stood a fountain (the '' Fontanone di Ponte Sisto'' or ''dei Cento Preti''), which relayed water from the great fountain called the Acqua Paola, derived originally from a Roman aqueduct brought back to working order by

Pope Paul V Pope Paul V (; ) (17 September 1552 – 28 January 1621), born Camillo Borghese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 16 May 1605 to his death, in January 1621. In 1611, he honored Galileo Galilei as a mem ...

(r. 1605–21): the water was brought from Lake Bracciano to Trastevere and from there over the Ponte Sisto to the

Campo Marzio Campo Marzio () is the 4th of Rome, Italy, identified by the initials R. IV. It belongs to the Municipio I and covers a smaller section of the area of the ancient Campus Martius. The logo of this rione is a silver crescent on a blue background. ...

. The bridge still carries the water of the Acqua Paola across the river in eight large pipes.

Baroque and Modern age

On 20 August 1662, a brawl erupting between some Corsican soldiers controlling the bridge and Frenchmen belonging to the retinue of the French ambassador triggered the Corsican Guard Affair and had as effect the disbanding of the Corsican Guard, a corp of mercenaries originating from the island having police duties in Rome. After the

Unification of Italy The unification of Italy ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (; ), was the 19th century Political movement, political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, annexation of List of historic states of ...

in 1870, the buildings surrounding the ''mostra dell'acqua paola'' were destroyed for the erection of the Lungotevere along the river side, and the fountain itself was relocated to Piazza Trilussa on the other side of the bridge, where it delivers water to this day. In 1877, two large cast-iron pedestrian gangways resting on marble consoles were added to the sides of the bridge. After considerable controversies, Rome's mayor

Francesco Rutelli Francesco Rutelli (born 14 June 1954) is an Italian journalist and former politician, who is the president of National Association of Film and Audiovisual Industry, since October 2016 and re-elected for the 2020–2022 term, plus ANICA Servizi. ...

let them be demolished in 2000, restoring Ponte Sisto's pristine silhouette, and since then traffic on the bridge has been restricted to pedestrians. The Ponte Sisto connects the lively and popular

Campo de' Fiori Campo de' Fiori (, ) is a rectangular square south of Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy, at the border between the ''Rioni of Rome, rioni'' Parione and Regola (rione of Rome), Regola. It is diagonally southeast of the Palazzo della Cancelleria and one ...

area (reached through via dei Pettinari) and via Giulia with Piazza Trilussa in

across the river, where many young Romans and tourists gather for an aperitivo on a Friday night.

References

External links

Welcome to Rome: Ponte Sisto
{{Authority control Sisto Bridges completed in the 15th century Buildings and structures completed in 1479 Transport infrastructure completed in the 1470s Rome R. VII Regola Rome R. XIII Trastevere Sisto